Today we depart the beautiful islands, we will be making our slow steam towards home. This voyage will complete our final leg of our journey and will take almost two weeks. A lot of cadets and staff are disappointed that we will be leaving our tropical getaway, but we are also looking forward to being back home.

This morning we picked up the pilot prior to departure. The tugs were attached and we left promptly at 0745. Once we sailed out of port the pilot boat came and picked them up. On deck the process of securing the lines commenced. Storing the lines out of the way is important for the safety of everyone on the ship. This takes some time to do, but once complete the deck will be cleared for all other activities while underway.

Some of the deckies were power washing the 03 and 04 decks. This is to wash off some of the built-up salt as well as to wash away any soot that might have accumulated. This process is time consuming but is important because it makes the appearance of the ship better as well as helps prevent some corrosion. 

As we make our slow sail east we have been surrounded by patches of fog and low clouds. It is something that is very weird to see especially coming from the higher temps and humidity that we have been experiencing. We are hoping for smooth seas but are likely to encounter some rougher swells. Most people on the ship are getting re-acclimated to the rolling of the ship and after a day it should go away.